


Of Course He Was Okay

by watery_melon_baller



Series: Terrifying Ghost Form AU [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Blanket Permission, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Desperation, Fear, Fenton Tech, Friendship, Gen, Ghost Portal, Ghosts, Ghosts are very off-putting, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, No one can tell it's Danny, The portal accident, This thing barely even has a plot it's just angst, pov tucker foley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watery_melon_baller/pseuds/watery_melon_baller
Summary: That thing that came out of the portal... was not Danny. It couldn't be Danny. Where was Danny?!RUN, Tucker's instincts screamed.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Tucker Foley & Sam Manson
Series: Terrifying Ghost Form AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074926
Comments: 12
Kudos: 183





	Of Course He Was Okay

**Author's Note:**

> I am but a slave to the whims of my mind's creativity, and last night at 1 am the inspiration to write this hit me like a truck. So, today I did. It took me several hours. Upholding my streak of every single one of the serious fics I've written having ghosts. Takes place in an AU (I think I'm using that right?) in which Danny's ghost form is incredibly creepy, off-putting, and fear-inducing to everyone despite the fact that it looks exactly the same as in the show, and it's literally impossible to recognize him in it.

“You’re sure this is a good idea?”, Danny asked as he pulled on a jumpsuit. 

“Come on, it’ll be fine”, Sam replied, giving Danny a little wave of her hand while wiggling her camera in the other. 

Tucker himself wasn’t so sure, but then again, what harm could come of this? The portal didn’t work, after all. It wasn’t like it could do anything. 

“Besides, aren’t you even a little bit curious?”, Sam continued. 

Danny considered a moment, before determination came over his face. “...You’re right”, he said, giving a confident nod. He went back to zipping up the jumpsuit, white with black accents and a stupid-looking sticker of Mr. Fenton’s face on it. Ignoring the sticker, though, it looked pretty cool. Like something out of a sci-fi. 

Sam stepped up to Danny and yanked the sticker off the jumpsuit. “You can’t go walking around with that on your chest.” Tucker had to agree. 

Danny seemed to accept this reality. He turned back to the nonfunctional portal. A deep breath, and then he walked in. Nothing happened. Not that Tucker had been expecting anything to. Danny glanced around for a moment, and then Sam lifted her camera. “Say cheese”, she prompted. Danny put on a smile. 

“The shot’s not quite right. Go a little further in”, Sam said. Danny moved backward and leaned against the side of the portal. There was a curious click, and then a flash of light momentarily blinded Tucker. Sam let out a yelp beside him. 

It was drowned out by screaming. Pained, agonized screaming. Screaming in which Tucker recognized the voice of his friend. 

Tucker wanted to help, but he couldn’t look, shielding his eyes from the light. “Danny!”, he heard Sam cry. It was so hard to hear over the screaming. 

The screaming stopped. The basement lab was left in eerie silence. A shaky breath escaped Tucker, too loud. Sam let out a choked noise. A sob, maybe? Everything was blurred, filtered through shock. 

“Where… where is he?”, Tucker asked numbly. He noticed absently that he was shaking. 

Sam choked out another noise, this one definitely a sob. “Danny… is he… where...”, she said. 

“Guys?”

Tucker didn’t recognize the voice, and immediately went on the defensive. “Who are you?”, Sam asked, an angry edge cutting through her tears. 

A figure emerged from the portal, unclear among the kind of electrical light haloing it amid smoke. Oh, was that the smell of something  _ burning?  _ Almost like meat. Tucker hated the analogy. It wasn’t flesh, wasn’t his friend burning. Of course it wasn’t. 

“Guys?”, the voice came again, more confused now as it issued from the figure. There was something echoing and wrong about it, like something crawling over Tucker’s skin. 

“Where’s Danny?”, Sam shouted, voice rising. 

“I-” the figure’s voice faltered. “Guys, what’s going on?” They stepped forward, and the light finally dissipated, allowing Tucker to see them clearly. 

It was a ghost. An  _ actual  _ ghost. 

Black suit with white accents, white hair on tan skin suffused by a soft glow. Tucker’s eyes widened. Ghosts  _ weren’t  _ real. Stories were cool and all, but this was real life. So how was one standing in front of him? 

“What did you do with Danny?”, Sam yelled, her hands balling into fists. 

“Wh- what are you talking about?”, the ghost stammered. “Guys, I’m Danny!” Tucker knew that was a lie. Some instinct, or gut feeling, but there was  _ nothing  _ similar between the two. This…  _ abomination,  _ his brain supplied- was not his friend. It was wrong and inhuman, calling up a rattling fear within Tucker. And despite all her shows of rage, he could feel Sam trembling beside him. It would hurt him and Sam, his mind told him. They had to get away, somehow. 

“You aren’t Danny”, Sam growled. “Where is he?!”

“Sam, Tucker!” The ghost’s eyes flashed between the two, in what seemed a good performance of fear.  _ Danger _ , Tucker’s mind screamed. Tucker inched closer to Sam, as did she. 

The ghost then flickered, and it yelped as it fell forward, sinking down into the lab floor. “What’s happening? Help!” 

It was a trap. That, Tucker’s mind could tell. There was a little flash of pity, too. The ghost seemed confused, not vengeful. But the overwhelming fear far drowned his sympathies. 

The ghost’s form solidified, leaving it facedown. It shakily pushed itself up. Its eyes then widened, and a hand covered in white gloves, so unlike Danny’s, shot up to grasp a lock of white hair. 

“What happened to my hair?”, it asked in a good imitation of panic. 

By now, the screams in Tucker’s mind telling him to run, run, RUN were deafening. He inched his hand over to Sam’s, and squeezed it, hoping to communicate this to her. They had to  _ go.  _

Sam gave a slight squeeze back. They couldn’t let the ghost know they were going to try and escape. Surprise was their only advantage. 

Three fingers tapped against Tucker’s palm. 

Two. 

One. 

Tucker took off running. 

Sam’s footsteps pounded on the metal floor beside him, beating in time. Tucker didn’t focus on that. Only on the stairs, the stairs to escape. If they could just close the door,  _ maybe  _ that would hold the ghost at bay. The Fentons said they ghostproofed the place. 

Up the stairs. Tucker heard the ghost’s voice following him. “Wait!”, it cried, sounding almost terrified. “Pl- please don’t leave me!” Tucker wouldn’t fall for that. It only spurred him to run harder. 

They reached the top.  _ Freedom, safety!,  _ Tucker’s mind screamed desperately. Sam had made it up right ahead of him, and had already slammed her hand down on the panel which would close the door. It slid closed,  _ too slowly.  _ But finally, the resounding  _ thump _ came which indicated the door was sealed. They were safe.

Tucker and Sam were left alone in the hallway, the space empty but for their heavy breaths. 

They stood like that for a long time. Or maybe it was short. Tucker couldn’t tell. Sam finally spoke up first. “What now?”

“I-” Tucker swallowed. “I don’t know.”

What happened to Danny? Where was he? Questions flooded into Tucker’s mind, filling in the space left by dissipating fear.  _ He might still be in there.  _ Horror boiled up in Tucker’s gut. Had they left their friend alone with a dangerous ghost? He was probably helpless, probably hurt!  _ Not. Dead. _

“What if Danny’s still in there?”, Tucker asked aloud. 

Sam’s hand came up to cover her mouth. “Oh, fuck”, she swore softly. Her eyes shifted to the door. “His parents could be back any minute.” She bit her lip. “We have to get him out of there. Or… at least his-”

“No”, Tucker cut her off sharply. “He’s alive. He’s not- can’t be-” He didn’t even want to say the word because it wasn’t relevant,  _ wasn’t true,  _ because Danny was okay. Of course he was okay. 

Sam’s eyes shifted down, but she nodded. “Okay. Don’t the Fentons have stuff that’s supposed to fight ghosts around here? Maybe we could get some of it, and…” Sam paused with a shaky breath. “And go back down there.” 

Cold suffused Tucker’s entire body at the thought of returning to the ghost’s presence. But now, at least while he was out of there, and more clear-headed, he  _ knew  _ he couldn’t leave his friend. Sure, they got on each other's nerves sometimes, but Tucker would do anything for Danny, and knew Danny would do the same for him. 

“Let’s do it”, he said. He attempted to eject some levity into his tone, but it came out strained. They were both strained as they looked around the house, acutely aware of what they were about to do. They found a weapons vault, but it wouldn’t let them in. Instead, they settled on the devices they could find around the house, conspicuously labeled and plastered with Mr. Fenton’s face. Sam ended up with a bat and something that looked like a silver-chrome vacuum around her waist, while Tucker took an electrified stick labeled the Fenton Ghost Shocker. 

They both hesitated as they returned to the lab entrance. They exchanged a trembling look.  _ Neither  _ of them wanted to go back down there. But they had to. For Danny. 

Tucker pushed the button on the panel, and the door slid open, too quickly. 

To Tucker’s surprise, they were greeted with sobs. The sobs of the ghost- Tucker couldn’t mistake its eerie wrongness. Sam looked to Tucker. Tucker nodded, and the two forged forward. 

The strategy they’d agreed on was stealth. If they could escape the ghost’s notice, grab Danny, and get out, they’d be in the clear. 

If they couldn’t pull that off, though, they were prepared to fight. The fearful little instinct at the back of Tucker’s mind told him that there was no way he could take the ghost in a fight, but he ignored it. He had to ignore it; the fear would overwhelm him if he didn’t. 

They reached the bottom of the stairs. Sam let out a quiet gasp, quickly stifled. At the end of the lab, the portal, previously just a tunnel, swirled with a green energy that emanated a cold that sent shivers across Tucker’s skin even from across the room. An energy thrummed throughout the lab, and the portal’s glow cast a strange filter over everything. It evoked fear in Tucker similarly to the ghost, but in a much smaller capacity. 

The sobs they had heard from the top of the stairs came from the small bathroom attached to the lab. This was about the best scenario they could have hoped for. Sam gave a decisive nod, and the two scurried towards the portal as fast as they could without making their footsteps loud and echoing against the metal floor. It took a lot of Tucker’s willpower to move  _ towards  _ the portal instead of  _ away  _ from it, but he managed. He had to do this. For Danny. 

They stopped beside the portal. “What now?” Tucker mouthed, suddenly at a loss. He had expected they would just be able to go into the tunnel and grab Danny, then haul out of there. But the portal was working. Tucker took a sharp breath as it occurred to him that Danny might have been pulled  _ through  _ the portal, into whatever realm lay beyond. 

A sharp clatter snapped Tucker to attention. It came from the bathroom. He exchanged a panicked look with Sam as the fear rose again.  _ The ghost.  _

It emerged from the bathroom, green… tears? Streaking down its monstrous face. Its eyes widened as it spotted them. Tucker froze. 

“Sam, Tucker, thank goodness you’re here!”, it said shakily, lip trembling. “Guys, it’s me, I promise,  _ please-” _

Sam brandished her bat, her voice cutting through the ghost’s. “Stay back, I’m not afraid to use this!” Immediately, a look of hurt came over the ghost’s face as glowing tears began leaking from its eyes once more. Its cruelly feigned emotions continued to get better and better. 

Tucker expected the thing to lash out—  _ danger,  _ his mind screamed— but instead, it collapsed to its knees, head sinking into its hands. Parts of its limbs began to flicker in and out of visibility. Still, vulnerable as it looked, it was probably still a trap. Tucker couldn't let his guard down. 

“Why can’t you recognize me?”, it whispered, barely audible over the distance and muffled by the ghost’s gloved hands. “It’s me, Danny! Please, just look.” The sobs redoubled. 

A sudden flash startled Tucker. Sam took a step back. The source was two bright white, glowing rings encircling the ghost. They passed over it rapidly, and when Tucker looked back…

“Danny?”, Sam breathed. All their weapons clattered to the floor. Collapsed on the floor in the monster’s place, was  _ Danny.  _ Alive, unhurt, just as he had been before entering the portal, before the flash. White jumpsuit, black accents. 

Danny’s lip trembled as he looked up. “Guys, I promise-” He was cut off by Sam crashing into him, encircling him in a tight hug. Little sobs issued from her throat. After a second, Tucker flew across the room to wrap Danny up in a tight embrace as well. He trembled. So did Sam. So did Danny, between them. 

Tucker had no idea what had happened, but the ghost was gone, and his friend was here. He didn’t care how it had happened. Danny was  _ okay.  _ Of course he was okay. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! It really speaks to how much fanfic in this fandom I've been reading that a lot of the stuff I thought happened in the actual show was just stuff I picked up from fics. Anyway, I might write a sequel to this if there's demand; I have ideas for where I could go with this.  
> Edit: Sequel has arrived. Aka not so much a sequel as a continuation; it's a big hulking multichapter now, updating weekly.


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